Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced today its new Safe and Secure Lighting system, which uses road-surface projections and car-body displays to inform pedestrians and other drivers about the vehicle’s movements and actions. Selected features of the system will be exhibited with the Mitsubishi Electric EMIRAI4 concept car during 45th Tokyo Motor Show 2017, which will take place at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition complex in Tokyo, Japan from October 27 to November 5.

The system projects large, easy-to-understand illuminated signals that are projected in clear view of pedestrians and other vehicles. Using a combination of road-surface projections and car-body displays, the system effectively alerts others when the driver intends to travel in reverse or open a door. The natural actions of the driver automatically quickly activate the system, ensuring adequate time for passersby and vehicles to react.

Light-based indicators for intuitive communication with other vehicles and pedestrians offer important advantages for automotive safety. According to research, 60% of pedestrian fatalities on roads occur at night, so illuminated projections that are clearly visible to pedestrians in the dark are expected to help reduce such fatalities. Also, the actions of future autonomous-driving vehicles could be difficult for others to interpret, so extra-intuitive displays that use illumination could help to communicate the actions of such vehicles effectively.